Photos by Kevin Scott
With unswerving dedication to high architectural ideals, the project to rebuild New Orleans’ Lower Ninth Ward is winning over over a doubting public
On May 17, a Hollywood-style, red-carpet gala took place in New Orleans at the Sugar Mill on Convention Center Boulevard. Starring comedian Chris Rock, crooner Bruno Mars, and rockers the Kings of Leon, tickets for the high-profile occasion ranged from $1,000 to $2,500. The evening's host, actor Brad Pitt, would make an appearance; attendees would dine on a sumptuous meal prepared by four celebrity chefs; and, to assure a unique party atmosphere, the services of an “event designer” had been engaged.
As a benefit for Pitt’s Make It Right Foundation, this nearly-over-the-top extravaganza was designed to serve two purposes: first, to celebrate the nonprofit's construction of one hundred design-conscious homes densely clustered on the still-devastated flood plains of New Orleans’ Lower Ninth Ward; and second, to raise money to build another fifty homes, to meet the organization's 2007 promise of building a total of 150 elegantly designed, energy-efficient, and solar-powered homes for survivors of Hurricane Katrina and its disastrous aftermath.
In the end, the event succeeded on all levels: as an A-list party in a city that prides itself on having mastered the art of revelry; as a reminder of the achievements that Pitt’s ambitious, multi-faceted project has already racked up; and as a conceptually sophisticated fundraising mechanism that netted a reported $4 million—enough to subsidize more construction, more experimentation, more financial assistance, more cutting-edge homebuilding, and more residents returned to the outlying section of the city most severely damaged by Katrina’s wrath.
But these successes were not always assured. In a book assembled to document the entire Make It Right journey, Architecture in Times of Need: Make It Right–Rebuilding New Orleans’ Lower Ninth Ward, Brad Pitt writes, “If someone had detailed the immense hurdles we’d encounter, it might have appeared too daunting a task to take on. By the same token, had we not believed so naively in the possibility, we would not be experiencing the unquantifiable sensation we’re witnessing now, a neighborhood resurrecting itself from the rubble, and the ultimate joy of families returning home.”
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With its roots in architectural appreciation, Make It Right is a tightly-run, clearly-focused nonprofit that ventures well beyond the cut-and-dried business of constructing one single-family home after another. The organization’s holistic philosophy on basic home construction is understood and articulated most eloquently by architect William McDonough, who describes it as taking a “Cradle to Cradle” perspective.
In Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things, McDonough and co-author Dr. Michael Braungart, with whom he developed the titular philosophy, detail an intentionally virtuous method of home construction that not only emphasizes the recycling and reuse of materials, but also includes attention to the use of renewable energy, enhanced water quality, social justice, and human dignity. The philosophy hinges on “improvement that is continuous and aspirational.”
Make It Right’s elaborately detailed website (MakeItRight.Org) describes the impact of the “Cradle to Cradle” approach this way: “‘Cradle to Cradle’ principles are fundamental to our design process, building methods, and product selection. Our homes are designed to produce more energy than they consume and have a positive impact on their environments. We employ water stewardship strategies like pervious concrete, and all our homes and buildings are solar-powered. We use ‘Cradle to Cradle’-certified building materials like Shaw carpet and Cosentino countertops. We collaborate with communities to design buildings that meet their needs and respect the dignity of the residents.”
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These high-profile ambitions invited their fair share of criticism. The eye-rolling began when, for an initial fundraising event, large, pink geometric structures were scattered over primary building sites, each one up for “adoption” by potential donors. Part art installation, part act of social disobedience—as project sponsor Brad Pitt described it during an interview with Larry King—the “Pink Project” was only partially successful. Looking back on it, even Pitt admitted, “It was a bit daft.”
In many ways, though, Pitt’s own celebrity status has been responsible for much of the skepticism directed at Make It Right, with detractors portraying the entire endeavor as a kind of vanity project: the wealthy, high-flying actor with a passing interest in architecture commissioning plans from hot-shot architects mainly for his own pleasure.
The futuristic designs themselves have attracted an equal measure of disdain. Take, for instance, the comments in a March 2013 article in The New Republic magazine, which called Make It Right’s angular homes “a bizarre sight in this city of graceful Creole symmetry” and described them as “spread out like a field of pastel-colored UFOs … on a largely barren moonscape.”
Architectural taste and personal aesthetics aside, The New Republic’s main argument against Make It Right concerned the deployment of assets in this vulnerable neighborhood. Complaints have been lodged with the project for rebuilding at all, thus forcing the expensive extension of civic infrastructure; and, once rebuilding was underway, for spending large amounts of money to achieve a select number of lofty goals when less ambition could allow for a potentially greater impact.
The snark-infested celebrity media had a field day at the beginning of this year, when Make It Right announced that a specially treated wood product used to build outdoor stairs and decks was rotting after just a couple of years of use, and that stairs and decks in approximately thirty homes would have to be replaced immediately.
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In the end though, Make It Right’s strongest argument for itself may be its unrelenting adherence to idealism, apparent in both the organization-wide transparency and through the simple attainment of basic critical mass: one hundred houses inhabited by families and individuals. Today, that translates into one of the basic building blocks of any city: a neighborhood.
And even though it’s a neighborhood comprising a strong and distinct architectural character, residents are not refused personal adaptations, as Linda Santi learned when she signed up several years ago for the chance to purchase a Make It Right home. Choosing a design by Frank Gehry, one of the world’s best-known architects, Santi asked for, and got, a host of alterations, including a redesigned floor plan, natural gas for cooking, and a retractable clothesline installed on one of her home’s several outdoor decks.
“When you’re the homeowner,” Santi said, “you don’t get up from the closing table while they simply go on to build their next house. Make It Right really does want to … make … it. right.”
The organization’s successes have also been measured against some of the toughest yardsticks available. Recently, the U.S. Green Building Council, proprietors of the green-building standards known as LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design), called the project “the largest, greenest neighborhood in the world,” noting that every Make It Right house met the group’s highest, LEED-Platinum criteria. Even its skeptics have been won over. After marshalling all its critical arguments, The New Republic admitted, “It’s all too easy to be won over by the spirit of the Lower Ninth, by the passion of the people who did return.”
Over the years, the New Orleans Times-Picayune art critic Doug MacCash, has also become an unabashed fan. Writing on the occasion of the May 17 gala, he compared the existing “suite of 100 eye-catchingly angular, silver-roofed homes” to a “monumental conceptual artwork.” And he expressed appreciation for the pragmatic side of the Make It Right equation:
“Pitt provided a city that loves architecture with architecture to love. …[He] set out to demonstrate the possibility of building homes that were well insulated, non-toxic, solar-powered, energy stingy, and otherwise ecologically sound. So if you buy into the modernist heartthrob’s vision, the futuristic neighborhood built to replace one destroyed by an ecological/engineering tragedy is meant to help mitigate future ecological/engineering tragedies. That’s poetry.”
Roger Hahn is a freelance writer from New Orleans who lives in the Blue Plate Artist Lofts, an equally progressive housing development.
Make It Right has a variety of ways that the public can help its cause—from donating money or stocks or bonds, donating building materials, or volunteering. Visit makeitright.org for more information.
